Of Grocery Lists and Sleepless Nights
by emotionsovrflow
Summary: A snippet of life for Callie and Arizona. Takes place ages ago, before cohabitation.
1. Grocery Lists

"Hey, babe?" Callie called to her girlfriend from the breakfast bar where she was sitting in her robe, her wet hair pulled up into a bun on top of her head.

Arizona was in the bedroom, getting ready for her day at work. It was Callie's day off, but Arizona had managed to get her out of bed early with the mention of group shower time, which they had enjoyed thoroughly. "What's up?" the blonde responded, poking her head through the bedroom door.

Callie looked up, "well, I'm going grocery shopping today and I was wondering if you wanted me to pick up anything special for you?"

Arizona's eyebrows crinkled. "Special?"

"Well, just anything specific. You know, anything you really like to have for breakfast, your favorite juice, favorite snacks, preferred fat content of your milk, a different shampoo or body wash maybe. I know you love that Greek yogurt with the pineapple chunks, so I already have that on the list along with bananas. Oh, and spinach, since it makes you strong like Popeye." At that, Arizona's eyes softened and a small grin appeared on her face, recalling the day she told Callie about the only vegetable her parents could get her to eat as a child. "I know some of your favorites, but not all," Callie continued, "so I figured I'd ask to see if you wanted me to pick anything up."

Arizona came out of the bedroom wearing only a pair of jeans and a bra, her hair still damp. She walked up to Callie, pushing her way between the brunette's legs and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's neck, pressing light, quick kisses to her lips repeatedly. Callie rested her hands on the blonde's waist, leaning into the peds surgeon and enjoying the attention being lavished upon her. "You are adorable and sexy and sweet and I love you, Calliope Torres."

"That's a strong response to a grocery list. What do I get when I come home with actual groceries?" Callie asked, kissing a trail starting at Arizona's bra strap, working its way across her collarbone, up her neck and ending just behind her earlobe.

Unfortunately, Cristina chose this moment to exit her bedroom. "Oh, come on, you two. Seriously? Get a room. You have one. It's right there! It's bad enough I have to listen to you guys humping like rabbits all night, do I really need to be subjected to this every morning?"

Arizona opened her eyes and glared at the other woman before bursting out into giggles. Callie turned around to see what her girlfriend had been laughing at and joined her after glancing at Cristina's neck. "Nice hickey, Yang!" Callie teased, causing Cristina's hand to shoot up to the exact spot on her neck in question.

"Yeah, Cristina," Arizona added, "tell Owen he should be careful with those vampire teeth of his."

Cristina narrowed her eyes at the two surgeons and left with a parting shot of, "screw you both."

After giggling for a few moments more, Callie regained her composure and looked up into Arizona's blue eyes. "So... anything I should add to my shopping list?"

"Mmm, strawberries and whipped cream would be good." Arizona said in a husky voice before dipping her head down to kiss her girlfriend deeply. "Seriously though, it would be great if you could pick up some whole grain bread, swiss cheese, almonds and some granola bars. With chocolate chips. And I like 1% milk." Arizona pouted when Callie pulled back and turned her body away from her, but then realized she was turning to write down the items she had just listed. "I wouldn't want to go overboard with my requests. Yang might notice a bunch of my stuff here one of these days, think I moved in and demand that I start paying rent."

Callie looked up from her list and studied the blonde. "Well, so what if you did?"

"You want me to start paying rent?" Arizona asked, confused.

Callie blushed a bit and looked down, clearing her throat. "I mean... you know... just, what if you did have more things here? And so what if Cristina noticed?"

Arizona replaced her arms around Callie's neck, waiting for the dark haired woman to look up at her again. "You want more of my stuff here?"

Callie smiled, "We spend a lot of time here. We're rarely ever at your apartment, and we spend the night even less frequently. You don't even sleep there very often anymore. I want you to be comfortable here. You should have things here that you like. Food, clothes, bring pillows if you want. Pictures or decorations."

Arizona eyed her girlfriend suspiciously. "Calliope. Are you asking me to move in?"

Callie looked down again, her blush rising higher. "No! Maybe... Not exactly." She took a deep breath and kissed Arizona lightly before pressing their foreheads together. "What if we look at it as like a learners permit? You can bring some stuff over here and we can see what happens. Keep your apartment for a while, but let's just maybe start making this place a little more ours."

Arizona pulled back and looked at the door to Cristina's room. "Are you sure it would be ok with Cristina?"

Callie scoffed at the thought. "Do you think I let Yang tell me what I can and can't do?" At Arizona's disbelieving glare, Callie rolled her eyes and continued, "well, I guess it's a good thing we're giving it a trial run, then. We can see how we all react to this change. You, me AND Cristina. If it becomes a problem, we'll deal with it. You know where I stand. I already told you that girlfriend trumps roommate."

Arizona smiled and brought her lips to Callie's one last time before turning to head back into the bedroom to continue getting ready, calling over her shoulder, "Meet me at my place at 5:30 tonight. You can help me pack up some stuff to bring over."

Callie heard the hair dryer come on and smiled to herself. Looking back at the list she had made, Callie wondered if grocery shopping would always remind her of a turning point in her relationship.


	2. Sleepless Nights

Arizona walked into the empty locker room and sat down on the bench, feeling relief at finally being able to rest for a moment, her feet thanking her. It had been a long day yesterday, followed by a long night with not enough sleep. Today had seemed to go by quickly but only because she had managed to do 3 surgeries, and 2 sets of rounds since coming in this morning. Her evening rounds had mostly been done on auto-pilot, and she was just short of shuffling around the halls in zombie mode.

She reached her arms over her head, then bent down toward the ground, stretching her back and sides. Eyes closed, her mind wandered to her girlfriend. Calliope Torres, in her gorgeous, womanly glory, was always a welcome thought in Arizona's brain, no matter how exhausted or fried it was. Hearing the door open behind her, she turned to see the object of her imagination walking in, instantly putting a smile on her face. A smile that fell when Callie walked into the room and right past her without even looking in her direction, straight to her locker.

As the brunette was spinning in her combination, Arizona stood and walked up behind her, snaking her arms around her waist as she rested her head on her girlfriend's shoulder. "Hey, you. I feel like I haven't seen you in years." At that, Callie laughed, a bitter sounding scoff, causing Arizona to pull away from her lover and her smile to disappear completely. "Everything ok? Did you have a bad day?"

"Who me? No, my day was fiiiiine," the latina said, sarcasm clearly evident in her tone.

Puzzled, the blonde pressed on. "Are you sure? You seem upset."

Callie, barely looking over her shoulder at her girlfriend, replied firmly, "I said I was fine, Arizona."

Arizona remained where she was, staring at the back of Callie's head, her face etched with concern and confusion. "Ok. Well, is there anything you want to talk about? Was there a patient or..."

Callie spun around, looking the blonde right in the face. "No! There's no patient, ok? I couldn't sleep last night, and then I didn't hear from my girlfriend all day long. It wasn't a patient. It wasn't the chief. It wasn't stupid fucking Alex Karev or some dumbass remark he made. Ok?"

"Whoa, calm down. What's going on? I'm sorry I didn't see you or text all day, but I've been super busy. I had that emergency surgery last night that lasted FOREVER..."

"Yeah, I know. You texted me last night at 9. 9 o'clock, Arizona. And told me that I shouldn't wait up for you. So I didn't." With arms flailing and her voice quick and raised, Callie was clearly not happy about this. Arizona, crossing her arms in front of her chest and resting her weight on her back foot, stood strong, listening intently to the mini tirade. "THEN, I woke up at 3 and I couldn't fall back to sleep. And you hadn't texted with any other info, so I tried to fall back to sleep but I couldn't. So I tossed and turned. Finally, like an hour later, I called the hospital to see if you were still in surgery and the nurse told me you had closed up at 2:30. 2:30!"

"Calliope, I was exhausted when I finished, but I felt so wired from the surgery. I didn't want to get into bed with you and then not be able to sleep and keep you up with my tossing and turning," Arizona explained, half pleading, half annoyed. "And that's also why I didn't text you, because I didn't want to disturb you. So I just went home to my apartment and slept there."

Callie visibly flinched, "You went 'home'? Really, Arizona? You went 'home'?"

"Yes. I went home." Arizona was at a bit of a loss as to why exactly she and Callie were fighting.

Callie, eyes firmly staring down at the floor, cleared her throat and managed, in a shaky voice, "I don't know why 'home,' to you, doesn't mean OUR home."

Not sure what the big deal was, Arizona pressed on. "Hold on a minute. You're the one who said I should keep my place. You said this was a trial run, that it wasn't official or whatever." Sure, they hadn't really talked or seen each other all day, but she didn't think it was worth getting into a fight over. Something told her, however, that it was at least borderline serious when she saw tears starting to well up in Callie's eyes.

Callie rolled her watery eyes and turned around, shaking her head. As the brunette slammed her locker shut, Arizona noticed, tacked to the inside of the door, the shopping list that she didn't even know Callie had saved. She thought back to the day her girlfriend had kinda-sorta asked her to move in. It wasn't an official moving in, but it had been a big step for them, and it was nice. They had met at Arizona's apartment that night and packed up a bunch of her clothes, pillows and a few other items over pizza and a bottle of wine. After a few glasses and the discovery of a special "toy box" that Arizona kept stashed inside her nightstand, they had made love in the blonde's bed. At the time, Arizona had looked at it as a sort of goodbye to her apartment, even though she wasn't really moving out. Since then, she had only stopped by to pick up an item of clothing here or a book there, until last night, when she had decided to sleep there. Looking at her girlfriend and seeing how upset she was, it occurred to her that they really had been living together since then. Regardless of nothing being firmly set in stone, they were cohabiting, and had the roles been reversed, she probably would have been fairly upset if Callie hadn't come home all night then seemed to be incommunicado the next day.

"Baby..." Arizona started, her tone soft and apologetic, reached her hand out and placed it on Callie's shoulder, squeezing lightly.

Callie took a deep breath and turned around to face her girlfriend again. Wiping her eyes, she said, "you know, it used to be... I used to have a bad day, or a really long day, and I would close my eyes and just imagine laying in my bed or sitting on my couch and I would long for it. I would long to be home. And now, when I have a piss-poor day, I close my eyes and all I can see is you." At this, Arizona recalled her thoughts from just moments before, when she had been day-dreaming about Callie. "Sometimes, I'm lying in bed snuggled up with you. Or we're sitting on the couch together. Or sometimes, it's just you. Just your face. Just the thought of you. But it's always you. You are my home." At that, Arizona smiled and brought her hand to Callie's cheek. The brunette leaned into the contact and breathed a tired sounding sigh. "I was having a temper tantrum. I was just over-tired and cranky and I missed you and I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry." Arizona ducked her head to establish eye contact. "I should have called. Or sent a text. I should have come home to you last night, Calliope. I'm sorry. Who cares about my apartment? You're my home too, you know." More tears filled Callie's eyes, although something told Arizona that these were happier tears than the previous ones. She leaned in and pressed her lips to her girlfriend's. "I love you so much, baby. I think we're both on edge from being tired. I missed you like crazy all day today too, whenever I had a moment to catch my breath." Arizona brought her thumb to Callie's cheek, wiping away another tear that escaped. "I'm sorry I made you cry."

Callie took a deep, steadying breath. "I'm soooooo tired."

Arizona dropped her hand down to take Callie's hand into her own, entwining their fingers. "Come on, I'm taking you home to bed."

Callie scrunched her face a bit in mild protest, "I don't know, babe, I'm wiped..."

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Calliope." Arizona said with a wink. "Who said anything about sex? I think we need some quality cuddling time, followed by countless hours of sleep." She pulled her lover into a hug, pressing the side of her face into the crook of Callie's neck, taking in a deep breath through her nose, breathing in her scent. "And tomorrow, since we both have the day off, we can talk about living arrangements and get started on getting rid of my apartment. For good."

Callie wrapped her arms around the blonde, tight, kissing the top of her head. "Let's go home."


End file.
